I am beginning to get the depressing impression that it is virtually impossible for a Canadian to buy a product with a valid warranty. The problem is that most manufacturers do not have an RMA location in Canada. This means that besides having to pay an exorbitant price to ship the product to the U.S. manufacturer's RMA depot, we have to pay brokerage fees when they send it back to us by UPS. UPS charges excessive brokerage fees even on warranty items. These fees typically will be more than $100 in my location. I don't understand how this can be lawful, but it is. I seem to have ascertained that the manufacturer of OCZ power supplies does have an RMA location in Canada (in Markham, Ontario) so the next PSU I buy may well be an OCZ. Does anyone know of any other power supply manufacturer that has an RMA location right here in Canada? Perhaps this problem is a factor of the retailer rather than the manufacturer? Perhaps we should be searching for a retailer who provides his own off-the-shelf replacement service independently from the manufacturer. Are there any such retailers left? I believe this is true of Futureshop but I don' t think FS sells computer parts such as power supplies.

long story but according to a "executive CS rep" for Samsung, NCIX is not a authorized Samsung retailer and by me buying it there I VOIDED my warranty . but after 3 levels of Reps and a hour on the phone I was able to register my SSD with them . the reason I had to phone was there is no listing on their site for me to register it on the Canadian site while there is on the US site .

Oh and NCIX is a authorized retailer and also has a partnership with Sammy

Thanks for the replies. Please keep them coming. I was just talking to a UPS service representative on the phone and he confirmed to me that I would be charged brokerage fees on an item I returned for warranty replacement even though it was marked "replaced under warranty" on the customs sticker by the sender. I was just reading a thread on another forum where posts indicate that several other people who returned items to the U.S. for replacement under warranty were charged high brokerage fees at the door when the replacement arrived. I wouldn't have been concerned about this except that Thermaltake mentions in their RMA policy that, although they do not charge to return the replacement item, brokerage and customs fees would be the responsibility of the receiver. I could post the URL of the thread discussing this (it's probably still in my browser history) but don't know if URL's are allowed here. As for me, I have decided it's cheaper to just buy a new psu every time one fails. That having been said, it makes me feel very much second class being a Canadian consumer and even more so by living in a rural community in Newfoundland.

I was just talking to a UPS service rep on the phone and he told me that I would be charged brokerage fees on an item I returned for warranty replacement even though it was marked "replaced under warranty" on the customs sticker by the sender. I was just reading a thread on another forum where posts indicate that several people who returned items to the U.S. for replacement under warranty were charged high brokerage fees at the door when the replacement arrived. I could post the URL of the thread but don't know if URL's are allowed here.

That is just a typical tag line. It really depends on whom is doing the warranty replacing.
I.e. I just got my Video Card back from EVGA and payed an all mighty zero.
They marked it at 1 dollar warranty replacement and it came through flawlessly. Which is both legal and sound.

-ST

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Brokerage fees aren't due to any taxes, tariffs or government regulations; brokerage fees are the courier company taking the opportunity to ding you for the service of running the package through the customs procedure. It's a gouge for which UPS is the worst offender, frankly, which is why so many people argue against using UPS when cross-border shipping.

Cross-border shipments under warranty are not charged any taxes or tariffs because the product is by definition on a two-way trip across the border -- therefore not being imported or exported -- and the relevant taxes and tariffs should have been paid when it was first imported.

If you can, try to get the company to ship it to you via the US Postal Service. They'll hand it off to Canada Post at the border, and CP only charges $5 for the handoff.

I RMA both Antec and Enermax PSU before to the US and never got a brokerage charge. Hell even Seagate used UPS I believe and I never got a brokerage charge from them and I got 4 HDD in that RMA. PSU is one of those things that may not be worth RMA due to its weight. Unless you buy a really expensive one, replacing it may just be faster.

EVGA, ASUS, MSI, Corsair plus others have always been a painless RMA experience for me. I sure wish people wouldn't bitch about paying to send stuff in for RMA when 75%+ of the time it is something stupid WE do that kills our stuff. Even for those that didn't kill their own stuff, if there were NO RMA you wouldn't even get a new product for the price of shipping only.